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March 27, 2012

Details

2012 State Central Committee (SCC) of the CTGP. Minutes were reconstructed from the unofficial notes of Barbara Barry and David Bedell due to the March 30, 2012 resignation of Patricia Kane, CTGP secretary.

3.Review by attendees of the February 28, 2012 SCC meeting minutes done by Patricia Kane.

4.Treasurer’s Report by Christopher Reilly. Current balance: $792.Chris also stated he was resigning as CTGP Treasurer effective Monday, April 2, 2012. David Bedell volunteered to be CTGP Treasurer effective 4-2-12 until the election of treasurer at the April 28, 2012 Annual Meeting. Consensus to approve David Bedell at CTGP treasurer from 4-2-12 through the 4-28-12 CTGP Annual Meeting.

5.Chapter reports: Fairfield: petitioning for several state legislative seats. Greater Hartford per SMD: working on getting petition signatures for a yet to be determined GPUS presidential candidate and our CTGP candidate for U. S.New Haven: working with local organizations such as Occupy New Haven. New London: did not attend SCC meeting but reportedly held a “Great Gatsby Gala” fundraiser on March 10, 2012 and raised $1400.

6.CTGP Procedure Committee report from Jerry Martin: Change of procedure for platform submission to GPUS per a request by Hector Lopez for CTGP support his proposal for a change to the GPUS Platform Committee and also for inclusion as a CTGPIt is:

The GPUS requires that all proposed national platform amendments from members in Connecticut be approved and submitted through the CTGP. This procedure will serve as a guide to that process. There will be a GPUS Platform revision cycle every two (2) years with each cycle ending in the even-numbered years. Within each cycle there will be a six (6) month period for submission of platform amendments beginning in June of the odd-numbered years and ending on January 1st of the even-numbered years. At the beginning of the submission period, the CTGP will attempt to reach as many of its members as possible to involve them in the process. All proposed amendments are to be submitted to the CTGP Platform Committee for development and vetting by the membership. The CTGP Platform Committee will submit amendments to the Executive Committee (EC) and the State Central Committee (SCC) for approval as they are developed. Upon SCC approval, the amendments will be submitted to the GPUS Platform Committee using the procedure posted on their website. Incompliance with GPUS procedure, one Connecticut CTGP member of the GPUS Platform Committee will be asked to serve as liaison between the CTGP and the GPUS Platform Committee. Passed by consensus.

7.CTGP Platform Committee report by Jerry Martin. The CTGP Platform committee agreed on the text of the following paragraph, but not the heading.

The Green Party believes that the rights protected by the Constitution of the United States are the rights of natural persons only. Artificial entities, such as corporations established by the laws of any state, or the United States or any foreign state, should have no rights under the U.S. Constitution or any U. S. state constitution and should be subject to regulation by the People. We urge the General Assembly to begin the process to amend the U. S. Constitution to make it clear that a corporation is not a person and can be regulated. Richard Duffee’s proposed heading (Section I) for this was approved by ten (10) attendees i.e. passed.Rationale: Section1: “Corporations are not people.” The rights protected by the Constitution of the United States are the rights of natural persons only. Artificial entities, such as corporations, limited liability companies, and other entities, established by the laws of any State, the United States or any foreign state shall have no rights under this Constitution and are subject to regulation by the People, through Federal, State and local law. The privileges of artificial entities shall be determined by the People, through Federal, State or local law, and shall not be construed to be inherent or inalienable. Section 2 (Money is not speech and can be regulated.) Federal, State and local government shall regulate, limit or prohibit contributions and expenditures, including a candidate’s own contributions and expenditures, for the purpose of influencing in any way the election of any candidate for public office or any ballot measure. Federal, State and local government shall require that any permissible contributions and expenditures be publicly disclosed. The judiciary shall not construe the spending of money to influence elections to be speech under the First Amendment. Section 3: Nothing contained in this amendment shall be construed to abridge the freedom of the press.

Presidential candidate and Thomas Sevigny, former Green Party Member and current Democrat on Canton, CT

City Council. Garnered 6 votes i.e. did not pass. Other proposed heading: “corporations and free speech”

garnered no votes from the attendees. Did not pass.

8.Internal CTGP Elections at the CTGP April 28, 2012 Annual Meeting per handout from Jerry Martin:

Location of April 28, 2012 Annual Meeting: Wilson Branch, New Haven Free Public Library, 303 Washington Avenue, New Haven, CT 06519. JM: there is free parking. SMD: but it is a very small parking lot.

Agenda: 12:30pm Registration; Two volunteers are needed to check the members against the membership list and review the credentials of the new members. A sign-in sheet will be available to collect email addresses. Each member will be given a card to indicate they can vote during the meeting for the potential GPUS presidential candidate. Two additional volunteers are needed to verify the written ballots, both mailed in and hand delivered, against the membership list. Representatives of any candidates who are on the ballot are welcome to observe and challenge. 1:00pm: Welcome and state of the Party Address. Ken Krayeske will be the facilitator and will speak on the accomplishments of the CTGP over the past year and the party’s goals for the future. He will ask members to make an annual contribution pledge. One volunteer is needed to provide pledge forms as needed. 1:15pm: Candidates for the CTGP EC and the CTGP representatives to the GPUS will speak and take questions. Five minutes for each candidate in ballot order. NOTE: a notice was sent to everyone on the CYGP email list on March 7th asking for candidates and candidate statements. A notice inviting people to be delegates to the GPUS National Convention was emailed to the same list on March 15th. A reminder to submit election candidate statements was sent to the usual SCC attendees on March 22nd. 2:00pm voting ends. The ballot verification group will turn the ballots over to the ballot counters. Two volunteers are needed to count the ballots under the supervision of the Ballot Supervisor (Caleb Kleppner?). Candidate representatives may observe the counting. 2:05pm: Candidates for the CT General Assembly and Congress will speak. (5 minutes). Candidates are: Remy Chevalier for State Senate for Westbrook; Colin Bennett for 2nd Congressional District; Nicholas Payne for State House from New Milford; David Bedell for State House; Rolf Maurer for State House for Stamford; perhaps: Melissa Schlag for State Senate from Haddam. BAB: the 4-28-12 agenda as proposed by KK, PK and JM, excludes the vetting and potential election of: CTGP members to the (GPUS) national committees. KK: that can be determined by others after me. Caleb Kleppner of New Haven has been enlisted by KK, PK and JM to design the ballot. Christopher Reilly also volunteered to design the ballot. 2:35pm Platform discussion andvoting. Each plank will be read one at a time. The members will be asked to indicate consensus. If there is no consensus a discussion will be held. If more than five members vote against consensus, the plank will fail. No amendments will be allowed. 3:15pm GPUS Presidential Candidate Preference Poll. A representative from Jill Stein, Rosanne Barr and Kent Mesplay will be allowed to give 15 minutes each to speak. The members will then be asked to show their preference for each candidate by holding up the voter cards to be counted. KK in response to a member question: no questions or answer period has been allocated. 4:05pm Bylaw amendment discussion and voting: the members will be asked to indicate consensus. If there is no consensus a discussion will be held. No amendments will be allowed. A majority of those members present and voting will be required for passage. (NO BYLAW PROPOSAL WAS PRESENTED at the March 27, 2012 SCC.) 4:35pm Results of internal election are announced. 4:45pm: Adjournment.

Discussion was held regarding how to get the ballots to all registered Green Party voters/members: volunteers physically mailing the ballots vs. the electronic process available from the U.S. Postal Service. SMD and others: the electronic U. S. Postal Service process has been used by the CTGP for several other CTGP ballots. It works well, is timely i.e. will be mailed out no later than three (3) weeks prior to the 4-28-12 CTGP Annual Meeting. It is also about the same price. It has the advantage of not requesting unknown numbers of volunteers to provide unknown hours of work. Consensus: to use the electronic process of the U.S. PostalService. Volunteers are needed to validate: who can vote, and also to count and validate ballots on 4-28-12. SMD will try to recruit volunteers.

Candidate names were pulled out of a bag to determine the order that candidate names would appear on the ballot. They are: Co-chairpersons: Ronna Stuller, Linda Thompson, Allan Brison, Jerry Martin, Rolf Maurer, S. Michael DeRosa; Secretary: Patricia Kane and Barbara Barry; Treasurer: David Bedell. For the five (5) CTGP representatives to the GPUS: Linda Thompson, Jeff Russell, S. Michael DeRosa. There have been no responses from Tim McKee or Charlie Pillsbury about if they are seeking reelection to these positions. Also others can put their names forward during the 4-28-12 CTGP Annual Meeting. Mailed ballots are to be sent to Jerry Martin, (165 Fountain Street, A2, New Haven, CT 06515.)

9.Fund Raiser for the CTGP on Wednesday, March 28, 2012 from 8pm to 10pm at the India Kitchen Restaurant, 394 Tolland Turnpike, Manchester,06043. 860/544-9595 (Exit 63 off of Route 84). Cost: $40.00 per person.

10.2012 GPUS Presidential election: SMD: he has helped to activate voters in Vermont to reactivate their Green Party and petition to have the GPUS presidential candidate on their11-6-12 ballot.

11.Other:RM: raised his concern to Patricia Kane, Esquire and Ken Krayeske, Esquire, that they did not provide any evidence at the 2-28-12 SCC meeting to support any irregularities purported to be done by CTGP member Amy Vas Nunez (AVN). (KK has reported that he “forgot” to bring it with him to the 2-28-12 SCC meeting and did not articulate anyPK: stated the irregularities “were too voluminous to bring to the 2-28-12 SCC meeting.)

RM also pointed out that AVN was not present at the 2-28-12 SCC meeting to respond to accusations. Thus she was unable to defend herself as defined by the U. S. Constitution and CTGP Ten Key Values for respect. Neither KK or PK responded.